


at dawn

by ofhobbitsandwomen (litvirg)



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Coda, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litvirg/pseuds/ofhobbitsandwomen
Summary: “You’re Galen’s daughter?”His voice reached out across before he really decided to speak. She looked over at him, surprise plain on her face. A stranger’s face with familiar eyes staring right back at him.“You know him?”She didn’t look like Galen, though. Her eyes were like his, her mouth formed words just as carefully as he did. She must have looked like her mother. But when she came closer to him, his whole body warmed, like finally, finally, there was something right about where he was. Something that made sense.





	

It was all jumbled up in his mind now. Dreams and memory and hopes. All of them blended together into one, flashing violently as they mixed with what was left. 

The regret. The fear. The sinking feeling in his gut that he had known all along he wouldn’t be able to make it right. That the words in his mind, swirling around in wisps, were a foolish dream from a moment that had never really existed. 

Bodhi thought all of this as he ran, the Captain yelling backwards at him to get out of there. Dust billowed around them and he stopped, watching the wave of rock and sand and rubble tower over them. He stopped, frozen, looking at his fingerprints all over the darkened, looming sky. 

But then the captain’s voice called back to him and his feet started moving, following with an arm up, blocking the dust from blinding him.

They wouldn’t wait for him if he didn’t follow. They weren’t there to rescue him. He’d thought maybe they were, for a brief moment in the cell, but he knew now that it wasn’t true. His job was to bring the message and if that wasn’t enough to pull him out of his fate, well then that was the only end he would get. 

Words he wasn’t sure were true or real or for him circled his mind as he ran.  _ If you’re brave enough _ , he heard.  _ If you’re brave enough to listen to what’s in your heart. You can make it right. _

But he hadn’t made it right, had he?

Maybe it was a trick or a dream. Maybe it was a punishment. The ground didn’t feel steady beneath him but he didn’t know if that was the fault of his own crumbling mind or the ruin heaving around them. He tried to ignore it as he followed the four strangers onto a rebel ship, but when he slammed down against the floor inside it and saw an Imperial droid sitting at the front of it, he felt his heart clench inside his chest. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, as if that would stop the fragmented images his mind was projecting all around him, as if that would fix it all.  Instead his mind latched onto the small sounds of the others scuffling around him until it was one big buzzing and he wondered if maybe they should have left him in the cell. 

***

“Eadu?” 

He’d blocked himself in. Sat in the corner, stayed quiet as Chirrut and Baze looked out, filled the small grey space with talk of everything he was supposed to have prevented. After that his mind had gone fuzzy, a stream of colors all he could focus on while ringing pushed in on either side of his temple. 

Her voice broke through and his attention snapped up to her. 

Jyn. He’d remembered the captain yelling her name when he told the others to break him out of his cell. 

“Is that where my father is?” 

Her father?

_ Jyn _ , his mind repeated her name. 

He felt the fuzziness fading away quickly. Snippets of stories from a man who seemed like a stranger now. A figure of an idea, a voice he remembered even if his face was still only coming back to him in pieces he had to patch together. 

_ Stardust.  _

He remembered the nickname slipping from the man’s lips with a smile. Galen, he remembered. Bor Gullet had it all jumbled up, but he remembered him saying it softly, like a secret. He mouthed the name to himself once as the captain answered her. 

It must have been her. 

“You’re Galen’s daughter?” 

His voice reached out across before he really decided to speak. She looked over at him, surprise plain on her face. A stranger’s face with familiar eyes staring right back at him. 

“You know him?”

Her voice was softer than before, and curious. Curious but guarded. 

“Yes,” he said quickly. His eyes didn’t leave her face, searching again for some piece he recognized, something he knew, something he could grab hold of to ground himself. 

She didn’t look like Galen, though. Her eyes were like his, her mouth formed words just as carefully as he did. She must have looked like her mother. But when she came closer to him, his whole body warmed, like finally, finally, there was something right about where he was. Something that made sense. 

A pocket he could fit into. A role he was needed for. 

“Did he tell you anything?”

“He said,” Bodhi’s voice cracked a bit and he ducked his head. Her eyes were too much. Too focused, too wondering, too desperate. “He said I could get right by myself. He said I could  _ make _ it right. If I was brave enough and listened to what was in my heart.” He looked Jyn in the eye then. She had softened and he felt his throat tighten. 

He shook his head, willing the tears welling up to stay put. He didn’t want to blur his vision just then. Not with Galen’s daughter, his Stardust—not with Jyn watching him like what he was saying mattered. 

“Guess it was too late.” 

He cleared his throat and looked away from her. 

It was almost a whisper, floating back to him, tugging his attention back to her wide, open eyes. 

“It wasn’t too late,” she told him. 

A lie he knew, but it felt like truth coming from her. He wondered how she could do that. Wondered why she even bothered. 

“Seems pretty late to me,” the other man, the one who’d grabbed him through the bars of the cell back on Jedha, muttered without looking at him. 

He was right, and Bodhi knew he was, but his heart sank a little lower, a little smaller, in his chest. 

“No.” Jyn’s voice was fuller then. She was still watching him, hadn’t looked away since he’d mentioned Galen’s name. She reached out and wrapped her hand around his forearm. It was small and rough, callous from her palm scratching against the fabric of his dirtied pilot uniform. He realized how cold his body had run when the heat from her palm shot up the rest of his arm, scooting up into his neck. “We can beat the people who did this. We can stop them.” 

It wasn’t just for him, but she said it like a promise. And even though he had no reason to—none other than the soft voice still whispering faded memories in his ear—he believed her.

***

Jyn  had dropped down next to him during the final stretch to Eadu. 

She’d hovered, nearby, and Bodhi was aware of just how far she was with every step, aware that she was watching him with a regretful sort of curiosity from the other side of the ship when she had sat next to Chirrut and Baze. But when she sat down next to him, her leg almost pressed against his own where they were stretched out, he didn’t see the cloud of regret washing over her eyes. 

Her fingers danced in her lap. Weaving in and out of one another like she was pushing all the restless nervous energy out and playing with it, trying to at least control it if she couldn’t get rid of it. 

Bodhi felt a similar sort of energy, but it wrapped around him, keeping him locked in place, afraid if he moved everything would change all at once. 

“I haven’t seen my father in a long time,” she said. Her voice was so soft he thought he’d imagined it at first. Perhaps she thought it was a weakness, speaking the truth out loud. At least in regards to herself. And she didn’t want the captain to hear her.

He looked over at her before he answered. Her cheeks were red and she wasn’t looking at him. He could see her nostrils flaring like she was getting ready for a fight. When she turned slightly to  look at him he felt himself clear his voice before he wiped his palms on his thighs. 

“He didn’t think he’d ever see you again,” Bodhi told her. Galen hadn’t told him too much of his plan. But he’d known enough. Enough to do his job. He’d never thought he’d meet Jyn. Not that he was there, just a breath away from her he tried to think of what he should do, but there was a new buzzing in his ears blocking out all his thoughts, so he just nodded at her, tried to be reassuring. “You were his reason for everything, Jyn.” 

Her eyes widened and he wondered if he’d made it better or worse. 

She didn’t answer him. Her mouth opened and shut, like she was trying to say  _ something _ , but couldn’t figure the right words. Glancing down and seeing her hands still twisting in front of her, he reached his own out, covering hers. She was nervous and excited and terrified and a hundred more things he couldn’t name, and he knew he’d never be able to string together a sentence to put everything she felt at ease. 

So after a moment’s hesitation, he squeezed. His fingers wrapped around her palm instead of just resting on top of her hand. Bodhi heard her take a deep breath in, watched as it fell shakily from her lips. But she squeezed back, gripping his hand hard. 

She kept his palm locked against her own, resting on top of her leg. She’d shifted a bit, closer than before though not quite touching. But she kept it there, not letting  go. He rested back, his shoulders pressing against the walls of the ship, and let the buzzing in his ear die down, replaced by his own steady breathing and the sounds of her shifting in the space next to him. 

He let it wash over him, a blanket wrapping around the cold pockets of his mind, all the memories and dreams and fragments sorting themselves out bit by bit, his hand in hers. 

He was pulled out of it only by the droid, his voice flat and informing. 

“We’re approaching Eadu,” the droid told him, standing over the two of them. “Cassian would like you in with him as we land.” 

He nodded pulling his hand slowly away from Jyn’s. Her eyes were alert again when he looked down at her, wiping his hands on his uniform once again. Not quite as nervous as before but not completely stilled, he noticed. 

Soon, he thought. They’d have Galen soon. He offered a small smile to her before following Kay-tu, hoping it was more reassuring to her than it felt to him. 

Soon. He’d make it right. 

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @ofhobbitsandwomen


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